Sunday, March 12, 2006

Last Night @ Yellow House

Another fun party/show at the Yellow House in Denton last night really reminded me of how far Dallas has to come before the local music scene gets interesting. And let me say from the outset that I do recognize the many built in advantages that Denton has over Dallas: Denton is a college town, and there is a reason why "indie" was once referred to as "college rock." College towns are the bread and butter of the kind of music we cover on this blog, and Denton is no exception. Denton has a lot of young people with a lot of time on their hands, a lot of student loans, a lot of alcohol, and the kind of youthful passion that people tend to start losing in their mid 20's (which might explain why Dallas crowds act like they are being forced to see live music while Denton crowds act like they live for it). Add cheap living expenses and the UNT music school into the mix, and you've got a place where a lot of people will naturally be interested in producing and listening to the kind of music we like to talk about on here. It really makes sense when you think about it.

But Dallas has certain advantages over a place like Denton that should at least put it in the same ballpark: more clubs and bars, a much larger and more diverse population (both of which would presumedly make it a more attractive draw for national touring acts), and an older, slightly more mature crowd that you might expect to have slightly more refined tastes. However, for whatever reason (and we're pretty sick of speculating about it) Dallas continues to be pretty dead on most nights when there isn't a big national act in town. We've more or less said all of this before, but right now it simply appears to be a fact of life. And anyone that tells you otherwise is simply kidding themselves.

As we pointed out in a post earlier this week, there are SOME signs of life here and there, but we've got a long way to go before this town is even as interesting as Denton, much less Portland, Austin, Toronto, or any other cities of a similar size. Really, can you think of any other city in the United States roughly the same size as Dallas that has LESS going on? We can't. But don't take this as a "lets all move to austin" rallying cry either, because for a combination of reasons we are all here together, and there must be a way to make this place and this time interesting before we're all too old to enjoy it. Hopefully someone will eventually figure it out.

We went up to Denton mostly to hear a DJ set (which apparently started way later than we were prepared to stick around), but what we saw instead was a band called Cartright, which we enjoyed quite a bit (poppy indiefolk). As usual in Denton however, it was the combination of the band and an enthusiastic crowd that made the show a worthwhile experience. Half the fun of being there was watching other people watch the band, and enjoying the friendly, relaxed atmosphere of the house. Nothing earth-shattering or life changing took place, and it wasn't even the best show we've ever seen at the Yellow House. But like many recent weekends, going up to Denton sounded much more appealing than anything (music related) happening in Dallas. And despite whatever combination of personal and other reasons that might have influenced our choice, the drive from Dallas to Denton and back is becoming a pretty regular weekend occurrence for a lot of Dallasites, and that in and of itself is worth noting.